Thursday, November 19, 2009

Buffing For Paladins 101

...should seriously be a class all Paladins are forced to take. It would entail mandatory downloading of Pally Power and a passing A grade to be allowed to raid as any kind of Paladin, as well as credits in Advanced Buffing, Buffing Theory, and Advanced Buffing Theory. Why? Because, honestly, a lot of Paladins don't get it right. (HEY GUYS THIS IS A RANT JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW)

Take last Tuesday night. I set up Pally Power for an Ony 10 man...and then the Ret Paladin goes in and changes it as soon as I buff. He puts me on giving out Kings, him on Might and the Prot on Sanc. Okay, I say, who is spotting me Wisdom? Because you don't have free assignment checked, and you're not doing it.

Do it yourself, you should have the 30 minute Wisdom glyph, he responds.

Then I won't have Kings, I point out. So then we do this convoluted thing where I buff everyone with Kings and then buff myself with Wisdom and then the tank buffs me with Kings and the Ret does nothing. I could have Sanc, Wisdom and Kings if he would have spotted me the Kings, but apparently I really need his improved Might buff.

Pally Power was set up perfectly until the Ret screwed with it. And, if he'd had Free Assignment checked, I could have organized it so that he got his improved Might and I got my Improved Wisdom and everyone got Kings and Sanc. But no, he went through and started putting it so that the Hunters got Sanc instead of Wisdom and I was giving out Kings instead of improved Wisdom and AUGH.

Wisdom is a bigger DPS increase than Sanc for Hunters, by the way, since the Hunter should not be getting hit! He doesn't need the damage taken percent decrease, he needs mana so that he doesn't have to spend as much time, if any, in Viper. The Prot Paladin is doing Kings, you're giving him Might, and I'll give him Wisdom. Stop changing it so the Prot Paladin is doing Sanc! Sanc is the last buff anyone should get (of the buffs beneficial to them) unless they are a tank.

Stop touching Pally Power if you don't know how to use it. And if you have mastered the rudimentary controls of Pally Power, make sure that you don't assign the Holy Paladin to have to give themself their two most important buffs. Because Paladins can't buff themselves with more than one blessing.

I know it can get annoying for Paladins to listen to the raid repeating ad nauseam "I need this buff." "Why don't I have this buff?" But I can say that I play a Paladin, and so long as you have Pally Power and understand the concepts behind your buffs, its really not that hard to make sure you never hear it. Set up any scenario and I will tell you how to buff with (a) Paladin(s) to maximize DPS, health or healing. You don't even really need Pally Power, it's just easier. So, come on, guys. Get on the ball here.

18 comments:

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said...

My favorite was always when Seks and I would have to deal with a new paladin in the guild raid. The exchange was always the same:

Raid starts."Do you have pally power?""No, just tell me what to do.""You'll fuck up.""No, my shit is pro (or some other nonsense)."Five minutes pass, fury warrior didn't get spot salv, death ensued.We get a new paladin.

Usually between raid starting and paladin leaving we made sure to give him a piece of gear Seks and I wanted so when he gquit it would be an extra joyful occasion.

Fascinating. I'm planning major level jumps for my paladin this and next weekend, so this is very helpful. I'd love a primer on the buffs and scenarios showing their strengths with 3 and 4 pallys of different spec combos. Hmm plans!

I'm also a raid leader at times, and one of 2 healing coordinators trying to ensure the raid is put together and settled for the pulls so much love and support for this "rant"!

I totaly agree PP is a must - I was handling my former raid group assigments since 2.3 (yay for salvations) and I tell you, managing buff assigments in BT with 3 paladins in raid or less, was a nightmare.

I know there are many pro and "pro" players claiming how they won't ever need it, cause they "aren't like, you know, retarded!" - I can't imagine on-spot rebuffing of battle ressed player in raid with Kings, that are very much crucial stamina buff. But hey, whatever floats their boat I guess, just don't expect me to play with you, buddy, kay?

Yes, I admit it, PP made us paladin lazy. But then again - in 25 man scenario, we have at least 10 blessings to distribute, that means 10 clicks, 10 GCDs, 15 second spent buffing not accounting for lag and whatnot. It took some time to teach my fellow players that they will be buffed. ONCE ALL ARE IN RANGE! My other liking is, and that is really what pisses me off, people shouting for small buffs.

2 mins to raid start...Shaman: MIGHT PLEEZ!Me: You will get it, don't worry.Shaman: I need MIGHT PLEEEZ!!!Me: Listen, we are doing a fight that will take about 9-10 minutes. If I buff you now, it will expire. I bloody know that you are missign the buff and I'll be damned if I ever let you run in without it. So please shut the heck up and let ME do my work, as I always did. THANK YOU.

I even made a short, little guide as pally-assigner on our forums, feel free to poke me somehow and I can mail it to you if you like. It touched all aspects from Blessings to Hands and auras.

What's worse is when you throw a few warriors with battle shout and shamans with their wisdom totems into the mix...I wish pally power would allow those preferences to be set as well.

And more so, I wish I could (as general detail organizer in my guild's raids) set up all the pally buffs as I like them when I'm on my hunter...how come I have wisdom and sanctuary but no kings or might...again?

I can understand your frustration and can see how having PP would be (perhaps more) beneficial in a 25 man raid. However, I run in a small guild and we focus on 10 man runs. None of the paladins in my guild run PP and we manage just fine. We all know who has what improved buff and assign accordingly. I can't see making that a requirement. There are two sides to the story.

Really the makers of the mod need to enable free assignment by default, and they could even go as far as auto-assign all the anytime the button is clicked. I mean, it keeps track of when people have points in improved blessings. I don't see what's so difficult about just having the mod do this all automatically.

I used to manage the blessings for 6 Paladins for MC and BWL runs, waaay before BC and a mod wasn't needed.Just a pencil and paper, thats it.Keep on top of your Paladins and hold them accountable for missing blessings. I keep hearing about pally power, and thinking back to the 40 person raids, and I wonder how the *removal* of quite a few blessings made assigning them that much harder.In the end, I see pally power (for blessings at least) as a crutch.Same with grid for that matter, but thats another thread.

Well, sorry but I disagree with your rant about that other paladin. 3 Paladins, a tank, a ret and a holy.2 of them need m and k and one needs s. The holy needs k too but is the only one who needs w. Holy usually does not have improved m. Since 2 need m the ret has do buff it. Since the tank is the only one with s he has to buff it at least on himself and maybe the ret since melee takes more damage.

@Pazi - I don't know how your paladin's are speccing...but, uh, a great number of Holy Paladins are going into the ret tree for the extra crit. That means that a great number of Holy Paladins have BOTH imp might and imp wisdom and are good candidates to buff those two buffs.

Oh...and for the record, Wisdom is only overwritten by an IMPROVED mana spring totem, and only in the event the paladin giving wisdom does not have IMPROVED wisdom. So, having the person with improved wisdom acutally, you know, buffing wisdom, frees up the shaman to drop a healing stream totem. Similarly, might is only overwritten by battle shout if the person giving it doesn't have IMPROVED might.

Perhaps you would be the perfect candidate for Bell's class! ;-)

@Bell - These buffs are nothing compaired to MC/BWL when buffs were uh....5 minutes each (if I recall correctly), and there were no group versions of the buffs. Quite literally, paladins did very little in raids other than keep everyone buffed. Good god was that awful to manage! =)

And about the Ret paladin originally buffing kings? His Pally power had been set that way, by himself, with no free assignment checked, at the start of the raid for every single class. Since no one could touch it I worked with what was there. Some of my annoyance stemmed from him going in and switching it as soon as I said "I set pally power." The other part was him screwing with hunter buffs, and telling me to buff myself twice. So long as he got his improved might, he didn't care about the rest of the raid.

It checks the raid member spec and allows you to auto assign the blessings for everyone. It manages exceptions (like buff sanctuary but use a small kings on the lolrets and the holy pallies). It lets you know when you need to rebuff (sound and time left configurable).

The blessing manager also allows you to assign who's going to use which aura.

Does a lot more things like reminds you to refresh sacred shield and buy reagents etc.

It's not a memory hog and doesn't use the addon communication channel as much as PP (not even close) even tho it actually does a lot more things.

Im feelin ya. I hate hate hate being in a raid with two other pallys and I still have to beg for either wis or kings. My guilds usually very good at managing pally blessings, the pally class leader is pro, but pugs can be a pain and I either don't have the power to set up pally power or we have a bunch of pallys without it.

THIS! So much this! I just pass out assignments now. I don't even let them pick. If they don't like it they get kicked. It's not even that hard but they all screw it up. And this whole "I want might"?? You're getting kings, and the warrior is battle shouting, SHUT UP!!!!!!

Also, to modify anoter raid member's pally power, you need at least raid assist priveleges. Even if his free assignment box was checked if you were not raid assist you could not have changed his settings.

Also, now that sanc provides stamina and strength and does not stack with kings, kings is no longer a talent, and it's unlikely you'll be in a large raid with less than three paladins, pallypower is less important than ever.

That said, a lot of pugs are assholes and having pallypower, and setting it up right, wins tons of credibility with other raiders.

Good info about pally stuff I didn't know, having pigeonholed myself into resto shamanism for 4 years--thanks!

I'd like to second Fallingleavesand wings's info about BoW on healers and anyone else who blows through mana (instead of shaman dropping Mana Spring totems). Having totems linked to the Elements means that shamans have to ration totems inside each "school" of Element (a little like DK runes). With Mana Spring and Healing Stream being in the same Element school, it would be fatuous for a shaman to drop mana spring whenever a paladin is around to give out Wisdom. I'll even ask for a normal, 10min Wisdom from a non-holy pally just so I can use my glyphed Healing Stream totem.

Also, if you're noticing Mana Spring totems overwriting your greater BoW, just remind the shamans in the raid that your greater BoW does cost reagents, while their totems are free. And that they might want to be dropping Healing Stream tots, because it's a sweet fire-and-forget HoT (that even stacks within the same group with other shamans).

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The Authors

Bellwether is a level 80 Druid on Dark Iron (PvP - US). She has experience in endgame raids, PvP and arena as a Restoration spec'd Healer. She also has knowledge on many other aspects of the druid class, including the other talent trees. Her alts include a Ret Paladin named Bellbell with a bitchin' attitude, and many ickle alties.Contact Information:E-mail: 4haelz AT gmail DOT comAIM: JuiceboxDaniMSN: bellwetherdani@live.comSubscribe to 4 Haelz!Picture provided by the lovely Phaelia of Resto4Life.

Sannhet is a Level 80 Ret Paladin, Frost DK and perhaps soon Warrior with an attitude and an occasional bone to pick. He loves to debate and hopefully he'll write in here to tell you how awesome he is (he's very awesome). He's been referred to on this blog before as "Button."